General Advice on Writing in Spanish

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Spelling

One of the virtues of Spanish is its simplicity of spelling. To avoid making mistakes influenced by English or French, it is worth remembering that the only Spanish consonants which can be doubled up are those which appear in the word CaRoLiNe.

–nn– is relatively rare but note innecesario, innumerable

Castilian pronunciation will help to avoid spelling mistakes with —ll– and —y– because it distinguishes the –ll– of castellano. In parts of southern Spain and in many parts of Latin America —ll– is pronounced as —y– which can cause difficulties in spelling, even for native speakers.

A genuine problem is b and v, which are pronounced the same. Spaniards distinguish them by calling them b de Barcelona and v de Valencia. (Both b and v are pronounced be, without any attempt to differentiate them; the names of the two cities provide the clue to the spelling.)

If you have access to a computer with a Spanish spellchecker installed, it will help you overcome some of the problems you might encounter with Spanish spellings. But just as an English spellchecker cannot sort out whether you need their or there or for or four in a particular context, so it is in Spanish. It is worth remembering that some words in Spanish depend on an accent to distinguish their meanings from other words otherwise spelt identically. So, for example:

si	if
sí	yes and the third person reflexive pronoun: herself, himself, itself and themselves
sólo	only
solo	alone
mi	my (mi sombrero)
mí	me (para mí)
te	(to) you
té	tea

Note that many people, including Spanish native speakers, write tí, influenced by mí. This is incorrect and the proof is that there is no other word with which ti can be confused.

A second group of words differentiated by accent are those corresponding to English, who, where, which, why, when and how in direct and indirect questions. In both these cases the accent is used.

¿Dónde están mis gafas?	Where are my glasses?
¿Quién la acompaña?	Who is accompanying her?
¿Cómo te llamas?	What’s your name?
¿Por qué no lo compras?	Why don’t you buy it?
¿Cuál de los dos prefieres?	Which of the two do you prefer?
Note the indirect use: Me preguntó cómo te llamabas.	She asked me what your name was.

Genders

It is easy to determine the genders of some Spanish nouns, but it is very important to be aware of the common exceptions, and to learn them.

Nouns ending in –o or –dor are generally masculine: but note that foto, mano, moto, and radio are feminine.

Nouns ending in

• –dad
• –dora
• –ción
• –sión
• –tad
• –tud
• –umbre

Nouns ending in –a are almost always feminine, but the following common words are masculine: el día, el mapa, el planeta

It is well worth getting into the habit of using the right gender with these words, and using the masculine form of the adjective with them, as soon as possible.

There is also a group of nouns ending in –ma which is masculine. The commonest among them are probably el problema and el programa.

• clima
• diploma
• emblema
• esquema
• fantasma
• idioma
• panorama
• problema
• programa
• síntoma
• sistema
• telegrama
• tema

Note that if a suffix is used with any of these words, it retains the gender of the root word, thus you may hear:

Tengo un problemita con el ordenador – I have a little problem with the computer.

Words ending in –ista can be masculine or feminine according to the person concerned:

el or la (taxista, tenista, artista)

There are some nouns which look masculine, but are in fact feminine. Their common feature is that they have a stressed initial a–, or a– sound. They all take el in the singular.

• el agua tibia
• el águila
• el hacha

But in the plural they take las: las aguas del Nilo the waters of the Nile. In the singular it is important to remember that if they are accompanied by an adjective, then that adjective takes a feminine ending: el agua tibia.

Nouns ending in –e can be masculine or feminine and it is important to look them up if in doubt. Verb forms you are unsure about should also be checked systematically.

Confusables

Some words look and sound very alike but actually mean something quite different. Getting them wrong can lead to hilarious – or even embarrassing – results. This is a list of some of the most commonly confused words.

banca	banking (industry)
banco	bank; bench
barra	bar; loaf (of bread)
barro	mud
caballa	mackerel
caballo	horse
cuenta	bill
cuento	story
falla	flaw
fallo	ruling; mistake
marca	brand; mark
marco	frame
plata	silver
plato	plate
plaza	(town) square
plazo	instalment
punta	point
punto	dot
rata	rat
rato	(a) while

Next Page: Classic Problems for English speaking users of Spanish